Africa Great Lakes Democracy Watch

Welcome toAfrica Great Lakes Democracy Watch Blog.Our objective is to promote the institutions of democracy,social justice,Human Rights,Peace, Freedom ofExpression, and Respect to humanity in Rwanda,Uganda,DR Congo, Burundi,Sudan, Tanzania, Kenya,Ethiopia, and Somalia. We strongly believe that Africa will develop if only our presidents stop being rulers of men and become leaders of citizens. We support Breaking the Silence Campaign for DR Congo since we believe the democracy in Rwanda means peace inDRC. Follow this link to learn more about the origin of the war in both Rwanda and DR Congo:http://www.rwandadocumentsproject.net/gsdl/cgi-bin/library

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

RWANDA-DRC:Rwanda schemed M23 rebellion for its benefit - UN expert

Editor's comments:RWANDA'S RPF WANTS FEDERALISM IN EASTERN DRC FOR ITS OWN SURVIVAL

By STEVE HEGE

Since the outset of the M23 rebellion, the government of Rwanda
has provided direct military support to the rebels, facilitated
recruitment, encouraged desertions from the Congolese army and delivered
ammunition, intelligence and political advice to them.

Rwanda, in fact, orchestrated the creation of M23
when a series of mutinies led by officers formerly belonging to the
group’s predecessor, the Congrèsnational pour la défense du people (CNDP), were suppressed by the Congolese armed forces in early May.

But Rwanda continues to deny any involvement and
has repeatedly claimed it was not consulted or given a right of reply to
our investigations. This is not true.

Despite the government of Rwanda’s refusal to
receive us during our official visit to Kigali in May, we purposefully
delayed the publication of the addendum to our interim report in order
to give the country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs an opportunity to
clarify the information. But she declined to do so and claimed her
government was not privy to our findings.

Following the publication of the addendum on June
27, we met again with the government of Rwanda in Kigali and took into
consideration its written response to our interim report. However, we
found no substantive element of our previous findings that we wished to
alter.

In our final report, we also documented support
for the rebels from the government of Uganda. Senior Ugandan officials
provided the rebels with direct troop reinforcements in Congolese
territory.

They also supported the creation and expansion of
the political branch of M23 permanently based in Kampala even before
President Joseph Kabila had ever authorised any interaction between the
rebels and the government of Uganda.

Kampala acknowledged this support was indeed
taking place in a meeting with the Group of Experts in early October. An
appointed senior police officer said they would investigate and arrest
those involved.

The DRC government is aware of this support but
has chosen not to denounce it in the hope of convincing the Ugandans
they have more to gain by working with Kinshasa than with Kigali in this
crisis.

What is Rwanda’s motive?

Throughout our work, the question most often posed to us was: Why would Rwanda undertake such a politically dangerous endeavour?

Some of the motives behind this war are as follows:

As per their name, the rebels have claimed that the government reneged on the March 23, 2009 peace agreements.

However, this accord was merely an afterthought to
formalise a bilateral deal between Kinshasa and Kigali which was
predicated on affording the latter with immense influence in the Kivus
in exchange for arresting CNDP chairman Laurent Nkunda, and forcing the
rest of the group to join the national army under the leadership of
Bosco Ntaganda.

M23 has also made many claims about human rights,
even though nine of its members and associates have been designated for
sanctions by both the US government and the UN’s Sanctions Committee,
most for egregious violations of international law, including recruiting
child soldiers and violent land grabs.

Nevertheless, M23 similarly demands good
governance, though they have attacked and appropriated numerous state
assets provided by donors, including recently, 33 vehicles previously
donated to the Congolese police.

M23 also claims they are fighting for the 50,000
Tutsi refugees who remain in Rwanda. A rebellion which displaces over
500,000 can hardly defend the rights of 50,000 refugees.

In recent months, M23 has increasingly claimed
that they want a review of the discredited 2011 presidential elections,
in an attempt to attract the sympathies of a broader constituency and
further weaken President Kabila.

Finally, Rwanda and M23 have said the Congolese
army’s military operations against the Rwandan Hutu rebels of the FDLR
have failed and the group remains a threat. However, not only did the
Rwandan Minister of Defence recently say the FDLR could never threaten
Rwanda, but the rebels are currently at all-time low numbers after
thousands were demobilised by the UN.

Objectively, the greater security threat to Rwanda
is represented by Tutsi political opponents who have fallen out with
President Kagame in recent years.

Rwanda’s regional strategy

Rwandan involvement and orchestration of the M23
rebellion becomes more comprehensible when understood as a determined
and calculated drive to spawn the creation of an autonomous federal
state for eastern Congo.

Prior to the November 2011 elections, a senior
intelligence officer within the Rwandan government discussed with me
several possible scenarios for the secession of eastern Congo.

He said because the country was too big to be
governed by Kinshasa, Rwanda should support the emergence of a federal
state for eastern Congo. He said: “Goma should relate to Kinshasa in the
same way that Juba was linked to Khartoum,” prior to the independence
of South Sudan.

During several internal meetings of M23 for
mobilisation, senior government officials, including the Minister of
Defence’s special assistant, openly affirmed that establishing this
autonomous state was in fact the key goal of the rebellion.

Several M23 commanders and allies have also openly
confirmed this in interviews I conducted as part of the Group of
Experts. Even senior Ugandan security officials also acknowledged this
was the aim of the Rwandans in this M23 war.

One officer, who helped support M23 in
co-operation with the Rwandans, told us: “They’re thinking big ... you
need to look at South Sudan.”

The objective of federalism also helps to explain
in part, the involvement of individuals within the Ugandan government.
If Rwanda achieves its goal, then Ugandans would need to ensure that
their own cultural, security, and economic interests in the eastern DRC
were not jeopardised.

Steve Hege is the former co-ordinator of the
UN Group of Experts on the DRC. The Experts submitted a report to the UN
Security Council pointing to Rwanda's involvement in the DRC crisis.